In an era when segregation thrived and Jim Crow reigned supreme, adventurer Matthew A. Henson defied racial stereotypes. During his teenage years, Henson sailed on vessels that journeyed across the globe, and it is those experiences that caught the attention of famed arctic explorer Matthew Peary. Operating as Peary’s “first man” on six expeditions that spanned over a quarter of century, Henson was an essential member of all of Peary’s most famous expeditions. His unparalleled skills as a craftsman and his mastery of the dialects of native Northern peoples, Henson was indispensable to the success of these missions. Of all voyages which Henson and Peary undertook, none is more groundbreaking then their 1909 journey to Greenland, and onto the previously impenetrable North Pole. Together with a small team of four native Intuits, Henson and Peary became the first team to ever reach the geographic North Pole, forever cementing their place as two of the greatest Arctic explorers of all time. In 1937, the Explorer’s Club honored that achievement, inducting Henson as their first ever African-American member. In 1912, Henson chronicled his recollections of this historic journey in a memoir originally entitled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole. Now reissued as First to the North Pole, this edition of Henson’s memoir features a new foreword by Explorer Club president Ted Janulis, emphasizing the importance of Henson’s historic achievements. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Journey Through the Ages is a book that attempts to trace the history of human beings from their origin to the present. It highlights the important stages they passed through in their evolution—biological, political and socio-economic—and, based on the understanding of their past, visualises what the future portends for them. The book includes the observations and opinions of great thinkers like Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who exercised a profound influence on our thinking. In the process of collating this information, the author has amalgamated historical evidence with philosophical theories to make the analysis meaningful. The book discusses early civilisations, the influence of organised religions on our society and more. It also highlights the relentless efforts of human beings to establish a social order, which ensured liberty and equality for all. Journey Through the Ages concludes with the hope that society will rectify its shortcomings and move nearer to the desired goal in the next stage of the social evolution.

Journey through the night sky on a poetic trip that blends adventure, imagination and science to teach the basics of our solar system. Includes endnotes about the planets, stars, moons, constellations and even a little mythology.

First published in 2000, Trade, Travel, and Exploration: An Encyclopedia covers the people, places, technologies, and intellectual concepts that contributed to trade, travel and exploration during the Middle Ages, from the years C.E. 525 to 1492. This comprehensive reference work contains entries on a large number of subjects, including familiar topics such as the voyages of Columbus and Marco Polo, and also information that is more difficult to find, for example, the traditions of travel among Muslim women and the influence of Viking travel on navigation and geographical knowledge. Bringing together more than 175 scholars from a variety of disciplines, it minimizes Eurocentric bias and offers extensive coverage of such topics as travel within Inner Asia, Mongol society, and the spread of Buddhism. Including an extensive map program and more than 125 illustrations, as well as bibliographies, a comprehensive index and "see also" references, Medieval Trade, Travel, and Exploration is a valuable reference guide for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars and also the general reader.

Mobility and travel have always been key characteristics of human societies, having various cultural, social and religious aims and purposes. Travels shaped religions and societies and were a way for people to understand themselves, this world and the transcendent. This book analyses travelling in its social context in ancient and medieval societies. Why did people travel, how did they travel and what kind of communal networks and negotiations were inherent in their travels? Travel was not only the privilege of the wealthy or the male, but people from all social groups, genders and physical abilities travelled. Their reasons to travel varied from profane to sacred, but often these two were intermingled in the reasons for travelling. The chapters cover a long chronology from Antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages, offering the reader insights into the developments and continuities of travel and pilgrimage as a phenomenon of vital importance.